Credentials include identification cards, driver's licenses, passports, and other documents. Such credentials are formed from credential or card substrates including paper substrates, plastic substrates, cards, and other materials. Such credentials generally include printed information, such as a photo, account numbers, identification numbers, and other personal information. Credentials can also include data that is encoded in a smartcard chip, a magnetic stripe, or a barcode, for example.
Credential production devices include processing devices that process credential substrates by performing at least one processing step in forming a final credential product. Such processes generally include a printing process, a laminating or transfer process, a data reading process, a data writing process, and/or other process used to form the desired credential.
In a printing process, a printing device is used to print an image either directly to the substrate (i.e., direct printing process) or to a print intermediate, from which the image is transferred to the substrate (i.e., reverse-image transfer printing process). Typical printing devices include a thermal print head, which prints an image by heating and transferring dye from a print ribbon, and an ink jet print head.
In a transfer or laminating process, an overlaminate material is transferred to a surface of the card substrate using a heated laminating or transfer roller. The material may be in the form of a patch laminate or a thin film laminate. The overlaminate material is typically one of two types: a patch laminate, or a fracturable laminate or transfer layer often referred to as a “thin film laminate.” The patch laminate is generally a pre-cut polyester film that has been coated with a thermal adhesive on one side. The transfer roller is used to heat the patch to activate the adhesive, and press the adhesive-coated side of the patch to a surface of a substrate to bond the patch to the surface.
Thin film laminates or transfer layers are fracturable laminates that are generally formed of a continuous resinous material that have been coated onto a continuous carrier layer or backing to form a transfer ribbon. The side of the resin material that is not attached to the continuous carrier layer is generally coated with a thermal adhesive which is used to create a bond between the resin and a surface of a substrate. The transfer roller is used to heat the transfer layer to activate the adhesive and press the adhesive-coated side of the transfer layer against the surface of the substrate to bond the material to the surface. The carrier layer or backing is removed to complete the lamination or transfer process.
The transfer layer or patch laminate may also be in the form of a print intermediate, on which an image may be printed in the reverse-image printing process mentioned above. In the reverse-image printing process, an image is printed to the exposed side of the transfer layer or patch laminate. Next, the printed image is registered with the substrate. The transfer roller is then used to perform the transfer or laminating operation described above to bond the transfer layer or patch laminate having the printed image to the surface of the card substrate.
Transfer printing devices generally require the loading of the print ribbon and the transfer ribbon (or a patch laminate ribbon) in the device, such that the print ribbon and the transfer ribbon are positioned for processing by the print head. Additionally, the transfer ribbon must be positioned for processing by the transfer roller. These ribbon loading processes can require the user to delicately feed the print and transfer ribbons through openings, around rollers, and attach an end of the ribbons to a corresponding take-up spool, for example. These ribbon loading processes may also require temporary displacement of one or more components relative to the installed ribbon, which can adversely affect operations of the transfer printing device.